MOBILE, Ala. – With the team ranking near the bottom of the Sun Belt Conference last season in assist/turnover ratio and turnover margin, University of South Alabama men’s basketball head coach Ronnie Arrow knew that was something that needed to be addressed when the team prepared for its summer exhibition tour through Canada.

Before the Jaguars’ fifth practice session Monday, Arrow said that has been an area the team has focused on since starting workouts last Wednesday.

“The decision-making with the ball by our guards last year was a weak spot,” said Arrow. “We’ve worked really hard on that to get better. We’re working hard on getting other people shots and not ourselves shots.”

The experience of returning seniors Trey Anderson (Carrollton, Texas) and Wendell Wright (Long Beach, Calif.) give them a leg up on newcomers Dre Connor (Lauderhill, Fla.) and Barrington Stevens (Allen, Texas). Anderson and Wright combined for 27 starts a season ago and Anderson finished sixth in the conference in assists per game.

While Stevens and Connor don’t have a year of the system under their belts, they come with their own impressive credentials. Connor spent his freshman season at Towson, where he started 10 times and averaged 2.4 assists per game, while Stevens was fifth in his district in high school in helpers before playing last season at St. Thomas More Prep School.

“You can tell Trey and Wendell have been in the program for a year as opposed to Dre and Barrington,” Arrow said. “They understand how to put ‘heat’ on you, what we want done and who to look for, the positioning in plays and where to be—you can tell the experience they have.”

Arrow’s plan for improved ball security involves basic drills, but also high-pressure, game-like conditions with increased defensive intensity.

“It doesn’t do you any good to dribble and pass with nobody on you—you have to do it with ‘heat’ on you to be able to fully develop those skills,” Arrow noted. “We’ve tried to put as much pressure on those guards as we can. Today we’ll start working on our presses and working full court, which will enable them to not only do it in half-court situations, but in full court, with double teams and making decisions in the full 94 feet.”

Junior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.), the third new member of the backcourt, hopes to convert those passes into points. The former Miami guard has given the Jaguars another outside threat

“Antoine is further ahead than the other two guards,” Arrow commented. “I think a lot of it has to do with strength—he’s a lot stronger than they are—and he’s able to maneuver and get open better because of that strength factor. He’s played at a higher level than they did at Miami. All of those things combined have allowed him to be further ahead than those two.”

The Jaguars will continue to work the rest of the week before opening their exhibition tour Aug. 13 against Windsor.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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